Liver Patient Urges Teen To Take Medicine

FORT LAUDERDALE — Tom Crane would like to meet Benito Agrelo, the 15-year-old who stopped taking the medication he needs to live with his transplanted liver.

I know about the headaches you've had, Crane would tell Benito. It's not a good feeling. It's discouraging, I know that. To tell you the truth, sometimes I felt like throwing in the towel.

''I'll speak to that kid any day of the week, anywhere,'' said Crane, who was near death six years ago when doctors spent 17 hours transplanting a healthy liver into his ravaged body.

Crane, 61, lives in Tamarac. He and other Floridians who have undergone liver transplants have followed Benito's case on television and in the newspapers.

Benito, of Coral Springs, had to undergo a second liver transplant in December 1992. He began cutting back on an anti-rejection drug last summer because he said it caused severe headaches and irritability.

''He was crying all the time and was very agitated,'' Benito's brother, Frank Agrelo, said Saturday.

In October, Benito quit taking the medicine, a decision Frank Agrelo said the family fought, and one that put the boy on a collision course with Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

Informed of Benito's decision by Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where Benito underwent both transplants, HRS two weeks ago initiated an investigation. Last Wednesday, HRS workers forcibly took Benito from his home on grounds of alleged medical neglect.

Three days later, a Broward circuit judge ruled that the boy could not be forced to take the medication, and Benito was released to his family.